"Don't come and don't piss myself."
"Oops. Didn't think of that. I guess you need me to rub it in, huh?"
Oiled, silky smooth and warm, her hands made love to his cock as she massaged him, a gentle up and down motion. Every other pass, she'd drag her hand down to cup his balls and give them a gentle squeeze. The musky scent of sex mingled with the tart-sweet aroma of the berries, and Lily's mouth watered.
"I really need to come soon, sweetheart,” Ryan said through gritted teeth.
"In a minute. You neglected to tell me something about this oil."
"What ... mmm, babe ... what didn't I tell you?"
"You didn't tell me how it tastes."
With that Lily took his cock into her mouth. He was large, and her lips stretched wide to take him in. Her hand continued to envelop and stroke, and her mouth followed. She took him deep, and had to breathe carefully when the tip of his penis hit the back of her throat and nearly made her choke. Deciding she couldn't keep him that deep, she made up for the deficiency by playing her tongue up and down his shaft and taking up a rhythmic sucking.
"Lily ... for the love of ... let me come!"
She released his cock with a wet plop. “You want to come, lover? What's it worth to you?"
Chapter 15
Ryan thought he would explode.
He'd never been so hard, so hot, and so desperate to come. Lily's question bounced around in his head, not making any sense—then making all the sense in the world.
"Everything, Lily. It's worth everything. You're worth everything."
"Come for me, Ryan. Come when you want to."
He closed his eyes, holding on because the feel of her mouth and hand pleasuring his cock went beyond wonderful. That sweet, long moment when arousal reached an impossible height was a place too rarely visited. The soft slick glide of her lips and tongue became the center of his world. He fought hard to stay in this place of erotic bliss. And then she took him deep and began to suck harder and more insistently.
His strangled shout of completion bounced against the walls. It felt as if his sperm exploded right out of him. He came and came with no sense of time or space, just this orgasm, the fiercest he'd ever known. Sliding down on the other side, his body bucked and shivered, as if a thousand volts of raw electricity had zapped him.
Lily's mouth continued to work his cock.
"Ah ... sweetheart?” he managed after a few moments.
"Mmm?"
"I, ah, think I just came in your mouth."
He felt her let him go, though her hand kept stroking. “I could hardly miss that. First time for me. Very strong and salty. But not bad."
"Um ... so why are you..."
"Oh, baby, I'm not done with you yet. I want you hard again. And then I'm going to fuck your brains out."
"You're going to kill me. There'll be nothing left of me but a dried up, used up, shriveled shell."
"Is that a complaint?"
He heard the smile in her voice and wished his hands free so he could hold her close. Instead, he gave her what she needed. “Hell, no. No complaints here. Just ... be gentle with me."
The next instant, he yelped, as the strap had landed smartly against his hip.
"No promises there, sweetheart. But I will be thorough."
His heart swelled. The uptight, shy woman she'd been mere weeks before had disappeared. Now, his Lily was in full bloom, a beautiful flower of a woman unafraid to spread her petals and be all she could possibly be.
Despite her obvious devotion to the task at hand, he didn't think he'd be able to rise to her challenge anytime soon, but he did. And he knew that thinking about the woman she'd become and how he felt about her helped to trigger his renewed erection.
This time, arousal was a slow, lazy climb. As he felt the heat grow, Lily responded to his groans by rubbing her bare breasts against his legs. Her nipples pebbled, and he found a fierce pride that she would be turned on by pleasuring him.
"Baby, I need you.” Unashamed, he let her know how very much he needed her. When she released his cock and slithered up his body, he wanted his hands free so he could touch her. And when she straddled him, when she impaled herself upon him, he thrust his hips high, touching her deeply, in the only way he could.
* * * *
Lily awoke just as the morning sun speared through the bedroom window. Wrapped in Ryan's arms, she mused, had become the only way to start the day. They had made love again and again after she got rid of his bindings. Sometimes hard and fast, sometimes slow and tender, she'd reveled in his touch. They'd barely spoken, but had communicated volumes.
"Do I buy you a black leather g-string and thigh high boots and begin to call you Mistress?"
Lily laughed, then wiggled around so that she lay on top of Ryan.
"Although I found it very interesting, and arousing, I don't think I have a future as a dominatrix. I really didn't like hitting you."
"It didn't hurt, sweetheart."
"I know.” Lily traced a finger over Ryan's lips, enjoying the feel of him, marveling at his sheer beauty—though she knew if she told him she thought him beautiful, he'd blush. Leaning up, she kissed him lightly.
"Reg treated me, in many ways, like a child. Or a servant. So it comes as some surprise to me that I became so totally turned on when you tied me up and paddled me. I really liked it. I ‘submitted’ to you, but I felt far from dominated. I felt ... free. Of course, that's more or less how I feel all the time with you. I love you, Ryan."
"Damn good thing, since I love you, too."
She laid her head on his shoulder, and felt his arms come around her. How amazing that this man did everything right for her. All her life, she'd had an enormous amount of love in her heart, love that she'd given to her husband and children and yes, even to her mother. But there had been something missing in the giving. Now, she knew what. Ryan cherished her gift of love, and treasured it. So when she gave it to him, she felt she gave something of value.
And she knew her heart would stay safe in his hands.
"Do you have any plans for the day?"
She sighed and stretched on top of him, wiggling and spreading her legs so that his cock nestled between the folds of her labia. He responded very nicely by holding her tighter and thrusting his hips just a little.
"Besides that,” he said.
"I want to weed my veggie garden before the heat of the day hits. You?"
"I need to touch base with the software manufacturer I've been freelancing for. They have an office in Toronto, and I have a ten a.m. appointment."
Lily opened her eyes and turned her head to see the bedside clock. It wasn't yet seven. Sitting up, she began to rub her dewy lips back and forth against him.
"Why don't I give you something to think about while you're gone?"
"What did you have in mind?"
"I want to take your cock deep inside my pussy. I want to fuck you."
"How about if we fuck each other?"
"Sounds like a plan,” Lily said as she raised herself up and slowly took his rigid shaft into her body.
* * * *
Lily loved the feel of earth beneath her fingers. She had a three-pronged cultivator that would have done a pretty good job of uprooting the weeds growing between her tomato plants, but she discovered something intrinsically satisfying about pulling the weeds by hand. Her plants produced abundantly, and she knew she needed to find some recipes for chili sauce and tomato paste. She'd already enjoyed one meal of green beans, with more yet to come. The radishes had all been eaten. She'd only planted a few. The half row of carrots was nearly ready, and peppers had sprouted on her green pepper plants. Next year, she thought, she'd plant seeds instead of the plants she'd started with this year. Maybe she'd buy herself a little greenhouse, one made of wood and plastic, and start the seeds early.
At the distinctive sound, she looked up, shocked to see Reg's car coming down the driveway toward her. Once upon a time, she would have begun fidgeting, anxious tha
t he not catch her doing something he hated. It shamed her to realize that would have been her reaction if he'd come to see her the day before Ryan came into her life.
Now, she kept weeding and waited. On the heels of her mother's incursions, she couldn't help but wonder what her ex could possibly want.
She pretended to ignore him as he got out of the car and stood by the closed driver's door. She watched him put his hands on his hips, and understood that he expected her to come to him.
"Tough shit,” she mumbled too quietly for him to hear. “You want to visit me, you come over here."
She stole a look at her watch. When he finally gave up and approached, nearly five minutes had passed.
"Lily."
"Reginald."
He hated it, she knew, when she called him that.
"Your mind must have been wandering. I've been here for ten minutes."
"My mind wasn't wandering. I thought you'd forgotten yourself, the way you just stood there, trance-like, by the car. And it's only been five minutes."
She kept weeding, but noted the frown on his face. I just bet you are confused, you son-of-a-bitch. The little woman isn't bowing and scraping the way she used to.
"Must you keep playing in the dirt? I need to speak to you."
"I'm an amazing woman. I can play in the dirt and listen to you at the same time. However, since the sight of me weeding the garden seems to upset your delicate sensibility, I'll take a break. We can sit at the picnic table."
"You're not going to invite me in?"
"That's right."
Lily used the garden hose to wash her hands, then shook them to air-dry as she walked over and sat at the picnic table. Taking a moment, she studied her ex. He was still an attractive man. True, over the last couple of years, a paunch had begun to form around his middle. His hairline had retreated rather nicely, but Lily had never minded that. He'd been a handsome devil when she first met him. She remembered the thrill that this university sophomore seemed attracted to her, a lowly high school senior. And, too, it turned out that attracting him had pleased her mother.
She'd loved him on her wedding day, and had gone to his bed a virgin. But years of his constant subtle put-downs, years of his cheating with one woman after another, had eroded and finally destroyed that love. Even without loving him, she would have remained married to him if he hadn't asked for a divorce. She wasn't ashamed of that. She'd taken vows, and had been willing to live by them. The very fact that those vows contained the phrase ‘For better or worse’ meant there could be a ‘worse.’ She figured she'd been living that.
When Reg had asked for the divorce, she'd been devastated. Now, she felt profoundly grateful.
"I have a serious matter I need to discuss with you. This ‘inheritance’ that your uncle has left you should have been anticipated and listed prior to the divorce. It should have figured into the division of properties and assets."
Lily tilted her head to one side. Reg wore his lord-to-peasant expression, the one he tended to use on her in the past when he wanted to give her shit for something. And he spoke as if reprimanding one who had knowingly cheated. She knew he expected her to apologize and make it right. He expected her to feel cowed.
The most amazing thing was that she didn't feel anything, at all. No trepidation, no intimidation, and no worry of any kind existed inside her. Neither did she feel mean-spirited or vengeful. How utterly amazing. Whatever power he used to have over her, apparently, had vanished.
"No, I suppose disclosure wasn't very thorough. Else it would have included your firm, your pension fund that you routed through several numbered companies, and your overseas investment account. But hey, them's the breaks."
"I have no idea what—"
"Save it. You did your damnedest to ensure that I got as little as possible. I had no idea Uncle Mark intended to name me as sole beneficiary. Never even crossed my mind. Further, you arranged the divorce settlement in such a way as to prevent me from having second thoughts down the road and coming after more money. That little codicil works both ways. At the time, it didn't bother you to have it that way. You never imagined any circumstance when you'd want to change it. Again, them's the breaks. Bottom line: This farm is mine, and mine alone. And no one—not my son, not my mother, and certainly not you—can make me sell it."
Lily watched as Reg dealt with the shock of having so logical and intelligent an argument tossed in his face. She'd bet that not only had he believed she'd never read the divorce settlement, he'd probably figured she hadn't understood it.
"Don't you care about your children? It's hardly fair that I'm left to pay every part of their educations, and to support them all by myself without any contribution from you."
"Why isn't it fair? You divorced me, not them. You refused to even consider that I should work outside the home, the entire time we were married. Seems to me that you therefore insisted on footing the bill all by yourself right from the word go. Why is it a problem for you now? Oh, and by the way, how is Mary?"
The look in Reg's eyes gave Lily a clue. She fought a smile as she considered that perhaps Reg had leapt before he really looked with that one. On the two occasions she'd seen the new Mrs. Martin, the woman had been garbed in designer wear and sporting very nice baubles. Maybe Mary wasn't content to accept an ‘allowance.'
"My wife is fine, thank you very much."
"And that's the entire point, Reginald. Mary is your wife, and I am not. My business—what I have, what I do—is none of your business. Not anymore."
"I am beginning to see that perhaps your mother is right. There's something ... not quite right with you. I see that I'm wasting my time here. Steps may have to be taken."
"About fifty,” Lily said sweetly, “to take you back to your car."
Long after Reg had driven off, Lily sat at the picnic table and thought. She felt good about the way she'd just handled her ex. Never in her entire life had she ever felt in control the way she had just then. For the first time, she'd been able to respond in the moment, rather than thinking of what she could have said afterwards.
But though she believed she'd won that skirmish, the rest of the war, was yet to come.
Reginald Martin might be a pompous ass, but he had intelligence and the reputation for being a savvy lawyer. Her advantage lay in the fact she knew that and him, while he had no clue how her mind worked, at all.
The time had come, she decided, to begin acting as smart as she knew herself to be.
Chapter 16
"That lousy son-of-a-bitch!” Ryan exploded after Lily told him about her ex's visit.
"I handled him all right, I thought."
"You handled him like a pro.” And she had. Too bad he hadn't been here at the time. He would have liked to have saved Reg the walk to his car. Ryan had worked as a bouncer once. He still remembered the moves.
"I bet he spent the next couple of hours in review of the entire conversation trying to figure out where he went wrong."
Ryan smiled in response not only to her words, but also to the mischievous little smile that kissed the corner of her mouth. Gnawing at him, though, was the sure and certain belief that Lily's ex had been motivated to visit in the first place by his former mother-in-law.
"I've decided not to wait to find out what ‘steps’ Reg felt might need to be taken, although, from what both he and my mother have said, I can guess."
Something in Lily's expression intrigued him. “You can guess what it is the dynamic duo is planning to do next?"
"Oh, you bet. Let me tell you how their minds are working. One, I am not doing as I am told—as I have always done. Two, I did not lower my eyes and play the meek and dutiful wife—as I have always done. Three—I actually had the nerve to talk back, which I have never done. Mother said it and Reg said it. There's something wrong with me."
Ryan felt his left eyebrow rise. “What the hell are they going to do, try and have you committed?” He thought his comment sarcastic. But when he met Lily's eyes, he
saw she believed exactly that.
"Either try to have me committed, or declared incompetent. Of course, Reg, as my ex-husband, could not be appointed as my guardian. But my mother could."
"They don't have a hope in hell of proving you incompetent."
"Well, you know that, and so do I. And they will, too, once they look into the matter. But see, they're still thinking of how I've always been, and I would be willing to wager they'll decide, after discovering that they couldn't force me to do their bidding by legal means, that they could talk me into committing myself."
"I'm getting chills just thinking about anyone doing that to a family member. And what would be the point?"
"For Reg, it's simple—dollars and cents. His new wife probably isn't as frugal as he would like, and he has the kids tuition and living expenses to shoulder. As for my mother—I'm not sure there is a reason."
Ryan's gut turned sour at the idea Lily's mother would consider such a course. The old bat. Someone aught to have a come-to-Jesus talk with her.
When he looked up, Lily beamed at him. That she could smile in the midst of her family's hostility toward her amazed him.
"What?"
"Thank you very, very much for insisting I get a computer. As soon as Reg left this morning, I began doing some research. And while gathering information, I made plans."
She looked so damn proud of herself that Ryan had to give her a hug. “Will you share your plans with me?"
"Of course. They likely need a bit of refining, and you can help with that. But I know exactly what I want to do."
* * * *
He left her early the next afternoon with the excuse that he had a business meeting. He didn't think what he intended to do would take so very long.
He thought Lily's plan was inspired. He couldn't wait to the see the expression on her ex's and son's faces when she laid everything out for them. Ryan had every confidence that when it came to dealing with them, Lily would come out on top.
Her mother was another story.
Mark had mentioned a few things over the years about his sister. Eloise Robertson Riggs had been a sour, bitter teenager and had grown into a sour, bitter woman. From what he could gather, she had made it her mission in life to alienate and then brow beat first her husband and then her child.
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